Hefty Hardware Case Study

Hefty Hardware Case Study

Victor B. Norris

Wilmington University

Hefty Hardware Case Study

The partnership between Hefty Hardware Information Technology Department and their Business Department totally inept. There are few major shortcomings in IT and Business sectors in Hefty Hardware case study, poor communication between business and the IT department, no time management skills, business and IT have no integration, corporate disconnection from retail sector, goals and values are not identified properly. According to the case study IT department is operating in its own technical world and has very little relationship to the business.

Changing nature of IT work, nature and frequency of communication, attitude and IT and Business Organization structures are few obstacles to effective communication according to IT Strategy by James D. McKeen and Heather A. Smith (McKeen, 57). Hefty Hardware case express few of these communication obstacles. Hefty Hardware is trying to implement new business strategy call “Savvy Store”. Hefty Hardware’s IT goal has changed to get the Savvy Store system ready before the dead line. Company is trying to use information and multimedia to improve the customer experience in a variety of ways and to make it consistent in each of their stores. IT would be critical for Savvy Store concept by ensuring that the products were there when a customer wanted them and that every store associate had the proper information to answer customer’s questions. The main problem with Savvy Store concept is that IT department has no clue about this new idea or how it works. One reason for this is only the IT account manager is engaging with the business team.

Time management skill is one key part of the project life cycle. Hefty Hardware’s IT department seems to ignore this important rule in their projects. In order to have a successful business project, having milestones are very important.

Milestones can measure the effectiveness of the current...